Swapping Handlebars

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

I'm considering swapping handlebars on my GS550L. Is it a difficult job? Time consuming? Any pointers or tips would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Hakan Uras
huras@engin.umich.edu

[Anonymous]

funny you should ask, as i swapped out the bars on my GS750T on tuesday. It took me about an hour, all told, but i took a couple of shortcuts:

I didn't keep the original grips, i went out and bought some new after market ones.
I haven't finished re-routing the cables so that everything looks super perdy

It's fairly straightforward, you loosen off the break leavers, switchpods, and anything else attached to the bike, remove the grips (i cut them off, it was easier that way) and then undo the 4 allen bolts on the bar clamps. remove the clamps, wiggle all the gear off the original bars, and go backwards back through the process, putting the new grips on last.

Depending on how different your new bars are, you may want/need to get creative with running the different cables.

Good luck!

[Hotblack]

You may have to drill some dimples for the tabs on your controls, I did. I also ended up using the old grips, I had difficulty finding ones long enough for the throttle barrel. I used the brake cleaner trick to get the left grip off - where you work the spray up between the grip and the bar to ease removal. If you can find proper grips though that's the easiest way to go .

I have a 550L too, and I couldn't stand what the stock bars did to my wrists, and wasn't crazy about the looks either. The ones I have now look very much like the standard E bars, and I'm quite happy. My wrists are no longer at an unnatural angle and I can sit straight up or lean slightly forward easily, and it seems to make the bike more controllable. It's a very worthwhile swap.

[first timer]

i concure. i just did my bars this weekend too. the old bars killed my wrists too. now i have some nice drag bars on it. the only problem is now my mirrors have become pushed to close together and i can't get them to pick up anything behind me. anyone have any recomendations on what i could do so i can see behind me again?

Ryan

HotB got any pics of your bike?

[Motorcyclemodeller]

Some bars just don't allow the stock mirrors to be useed anymore. Drag bars, clubmans, super drops all leave your mirrors in useless positions. There are two good options, bar end mirrors or aftermarket fully adjustables. Here are some links so you can have a peak:






Andre

[Anonymous]

I was thinking of adding bar end mirrors to mine, but do they work on the throttle side?

[first timer]

http://www.lockhartphillipsusa.com/pages/product-sub3.asp?id=169

http://www.lockhartphillipsusa.com/pages/product-sub3.asp?id=170

http://www.lockhartphillipsusa.com/pages/product-sub3.asp?id=171

now i just need some money

thanks for the info. anyone out there use any of these types of mirrors and how do you like them?

ryan

[crag antler]

OK, I tried adding some drag bars on my GS but the idle would increase on hard left and right.
Would that be fixed just by rerouting the throttle cable?
Thanks

[Hotblack]

My switch was easy in that the bars I went to are more or less stock for E models, so I can order cables and such for it. The wiring itself needs a little tucking and folding though. Drag bars seem like the could be tricky, depending on where you're coming from. Going from the L 'deer antlers' to the E bars makes the cables a little unwieldy, though not sharply kinked, just looped way out. I'm having no problem with them, but I'm going to replace them anyway in the near future. The front brake hose does a little zig zag now, but with no sharper a bend that the rear has, so i think that's fine. If you're getting the raised idle maybe routing will help, maybe you need shorter cables. I just went for the gentlest bends I could with everything (except the wiring). Someone going from the L bars to drag bars I would think would have to replace the cables and brake line, that's a pretty radical difference.

As far as mirrors I had some round ones with 10" stalks that I'd ordered from Whitney's (actually pretty decent mirrors!). They looked really funny on the old bars and were hard to angle, but they work perfect on the new bars. The L bars have short mirror stalks, I imagine they would be a problem on drag bars, not so sure of the 10" ones.

[first timer]

i would agree with HB you need to pull your gas tank and reroute your throttel cable, make a nice big lazy a arch and don't worry about tieing the cable to the frame. your first concern is to make the idle stop jumping up on your turns once you figure out which way the cable wants to go then start coaxing it to go where you want it to go with in reason.

ryan